1. Technical Field
The present invention is directed to an operator configurable vehicle instrument panel with the ability to provide both analog and digital visual style outputs, and more particularly to an instrument panel configured to provide a digital style display in a first state and an analog style display in a second state, using a physical pointer in the second state that was not visible in the first state.
2. Discussion
Vehicle manufacturers continually strive to differentiate vehicles in the market place by providing unique styling and aesthetic features. As part of this differentiation, many manufacturers attempt to provide a unique cockpit look and feel for the operator of the vehicle. As part of this unique look and feel, each vehicle manufacturer attempts to have a different appearance to the instrument panel and gauges; however, manufacturers have been limited in differentiating instrument panels and gauges by the types, sizes and requirements that are available for producing a visually attractive appearance that also efficiently provides information to the operator of the vehicle in a clear, concise manner. In addition most instrument panels and in particular most gauges generally have limited available space for customization and the amount of space required for each pointer of the gauge sweeping about its rotational axis and in particular for speedometer pointers also limited available design options. In addition, designers have been limited to either a digital gauge or an analog gauge, which did not allow operators to pick their described preference.
Traditionally, instrument panels and gauges were backlighted, which limited the number of design options for instrument panels. The pointers also were generally located above the surface plate of the instrument panel with the axis of the pointer being located approximately in the center of the gauge with a fixed and nonchangeable display underneath. At most, a small LCD window was located in a blank area of the gauge that provided scrolling or selectable content such as vehicle information, trip odometer, odometer, direction of travel, clock and other information useful to the operator of the vehicle. However, the main gauges such as speed, rpm and others were always static and were not able to be customized by the user, while maintaining analog style pointers.